Everybody Hurts
by Phoenix Eve
Summary: The X-Men reflect on whatthey did wrong one night that is causing Rogue so much pain. But most of the blame falls on Gambit. Romy!


Scott looked down at the carpet, it looked red, like always. Everything looked red, always. Everything even seemed to sound red like his vision. Right now, Rogue's screams of pain seemed red, Charles pleading with her to calm down was red, and Logan and Hank's struggling grunts restraining Rogue surfaced in his mind as red. He hated this stupid visor, making everything red. He never knew Jean's hair was actually red till after 2 months of knowing her, she could have been a blond for all he knew. This visor made him blind to more then color. When he had shades on he was Scott, friend to Xavier's Gifted Youngsters. When the visor cam on, he was Cyclops, leader of the X-Men. Maybe if he had been Rogue's friend instead of her leader, she would have been sitting next to him in the living room instead of in the medical lab.  
  
Jean paced outside of the medical lab, waiting for Charles if he needed backup. This was all he fault, if she hadn't fainted in battle, Rogue would never have to do what she did. If she had only practiced more in the Danger Room, Rogue could have avoided this. The blame absorbed Jean's mind, she had never handled her relationship with Rogue well. If she didn't go on that date with Scott to the concert, he would have went with Rogue. She read their minds, she knew what would happen. If Rogue was with Scott that night, Mystique never would have been absorbed by Rogue, that whole nasty night, most likely one of the worst nights in Rogue life would have been avoided. (A/N-That was referring to Self Possessed.) Rogue had too many bad nights, but most likely this one would leave the biggest mental scar. Finally, she heard Charles call for her to come help.  
  
Charles rested his mind while Jean tried using her powers to calm the enraged Rogue. He couldn't believe a vision from the future he saw while he was a horseman had come true, not so soon. He thought he would have time to change it. Not now, now he could see that it was all fate, now matter how careful he was. He wondered if he should let Jean use her powers so much if he knew what lied ahead for her as well. He summoned all the mental strength he could and told Jean he would take back over, he wasn't going to fail both her and Rouge in one night.  
  
Logan received another powerful toss from Rogue's left arm. He felt like crap, even his healing factor was having a tough time keeping up with the pummeling he was receiving. He couldn't remember a punch that hard since he had his last brawl with Peter. Peter would be helping his teammates right now, if he wasn't out cold on the other side of the med-lab. They could sure use him now. Logan looked down at Rogue squirming form on the med- table. How he wanted to tell her it was okay, but his words couldn't reach her now. He wasn't sure if the girl on the table still was Rogue or someone else. He just kept holding her down, giving Chuck a chance to sort out her mind. Hank couldn't handle both arms at once.  
  
Kurt was cringing in the corner a small distance away from Scott. Why did they have to wait in the living room while Rogue was down there fighting the worse fight of her life? Charles said he didn't need another accident like Peter's happening. Metal skin or not, Rogue was dangerous. He had been able to forgive Rogue for everything now that their mother was alive and well, even if they had nothing to do with her. He needed to be with his sister, while she was still in control of her mind. Kitty walked over and hugged Kurt, it was all she could think to do at a time like this. Poor Kurt was going to have to deal with maybe losing his sister tonight. She heard Storm talking to Charles as they took Rogue down to the lab, she heard them talk of Rogue fate. If Rogue didn't resurface soon, they might have to put her in one of those machine they put Juggernaut in. Kitty started to tear up at the thought of Rogue floating in suspended animation in that creepy liquid. She knew it was a step that must be taken, if Rogue couldn't control her body anymore, the X-Men would be in mortal danger.  
  
Storm tried to calm her nerves, if not a hurricane might break out reflecting her mood. She couldn't watch Rogue be pushed away like Evan. Evan still in those sewers, he wouldn't even stay at the mansion after the battle in China. Rogue and Evan were both outcasts in the mansion, she wouldn't watch Rouge be put away. She stepped away from the window where a harsh rain began to beat from a clear sky and went down to help anyway possible.  
  
Remy was awaken from a downward spiral in his mind by the pounding of the rain on his body. He looked up from his balled up position to the sky, water beating him. A beating he deserved. He still heard the screams from earlier this night. Her screams. Rouge's cry to him.  
  
~~ "REMY! LOOK OUT!" Rouge cried as Jean fainted. The telekinetic hold she had on Miss Marvel was released. They hadn't finished saving the imprisoned mutants.  
  
"Shit!" Remy dodged a flying human missile and fell onto the ground. He had just escaped from prison with Peter. This Miss Marvel had taken them prisoners for the crimes they committed under Magneto's command. The X-Men had come to rescuer them and several other of Miss Marvel mutant captures. This Marvel was only trying to clear up the name for mutants by getting rid of the bad ones.  
  
"Stop it! Don't you realize they are going to send these mutants to special laboratories and experiment on them?" Scott called out to her. "Our mentor, Professor Xavier discovered a mutant concentration camp named Genova! They enslave mutants who go to prison!"  
  
"Then that's what they get!" Miss Marvel hissed, "My family was attacked because I was a mutant! It's mutants like these who cause trouble for the rest of us. It's your mentors fault for not getting rid of these scum that we have mutant hate! Ever since I started defeating evil mutants, my town has granted my family protection!"  
  
With this she took another power dive at Remy, but was knocked of course by Rouge's mid-air tackle.  
  
"Yah need to calm down sugah! I got just the thing for you!" Rouge removed her glove and pressed it to Miss Marvel's face. But the pull was only slight. "What the hell?"  
  
"Your powers are useless against my invulnerability!" Miss Marvel smirked and attempted to swipe away Rogue's hand. But Rogue dodged and came behind her and put he in a chokehold.  
  
"We'll just see about that sugah!" Rogue growled, she had to do whatever she could to buy time for the mutants to escape.  
  
"If you are going to be that way, let's see how you can handle my powers!" Miss Marvel took off into flight. She pushed herself faster and faster upward, hoping to drop Rogue, but the southern Goth held on tight still trying to drain energy.  
  
"ROGUE!" Remy yelled out. He was pulled to the ground by Scott.  
  
"Gambit, she is buying us time, make sure her effort isn't in vain, get you and the others out of here!" Scott said, lifting Jean's unconscious form from the ground.  
  
Remy gritted his teeth, he didn't want to use Rogue anymore for her powers after the incident in New Orleans, but he had no choice. He lead a few other mutants who had been jailed unfairly to the blackbird.  
  
"Kurt! Everyone is safe, teleport up there and pull Rogue off!" Storm cried out from inside the blackbird as it prepared to take off.  
  
Kurt looked up in panic, "They're too high!"  
  
Then came the sound that sent chills down Remy's back, a sound that would never stop haunting him. It started off as a scream from Miss Marvel but slowly died away into Rogue screaming alone! Their bodies started to plummet to the ground from hundreds of feet up. Remy heard the words being screamed from Rouge.  
  
"I CAN'T PULL MY HAND OFF! SHE'S DYING! WE ARE BOTH GOING TO DIE!"  
  
Then the crash, a smoke cloud rose up. For a second, everyone just stopped into dead silence except for the sound of the Blackbird's engines. No one moved, the fall happened so fast it's almost like it didn't happen. As reality set in Remy and Scott ran in total silence to the slaw crater the two girls had made on their landing. They were first greeted with Miss Marvel's bloody body, barely breathing, tossed aside like a rag doll outside the main impact zone. In the center was Rouge, without a single mark on her. She was sitting shaking.  
  
"Rouge?" Scott strutted out in amazement. Rogue looked up at him with tear filled eyes.  
  
"Chere?" Remy asked; trying to snap her out of a daze she seemed in. The tears started to flow down her pale cheeks.  
  
"You need to run...Goodbye." Was all Rogue uttered before her eyes rolled back. Scott and Remy looked at each other confused. Then Rogue head snapped forward, eyes locked on Miss Marvel's body.  
  
"My body? I am dead!?" the words slipped out of Rogue's mouth in a foreign voice. It was Miss Marvel. "No! I didn't do anything wrong! I was the good guy!"  
  
"What should we do?" Remy whispered to Scott in terror. This again snapped Rogue head up. Her eyes were blue and burning with rage.  
  
"You did this to me! You had this witch steal my mind! I'll kill every last one of you X-Men or kill her body, either way I will have my revenge!"  
  
~~  
  
Remy sat in the rain, letting it soak into his clothes and hair. Washing away dream like state he had been in since he arrived. He had been a free agent ever since Magneto disappeared during the fight with Apocalypse. He had dropped in and out of Bayville since then to see what was going on, mostly to tease Rogue. He felt he owed it to her to cheer her up and show her a good time for saving his ass back in New Orleans. Every time she would ask him to stay, every time he would tell her maybe later on.  
  
"Gambit?" Charles voice called from behind him.  
  
"Call me Remy, my name is Remy Le Beau. I figure if I am going to join the team you should know my real name." Remy said, still crouched in a ball on the front steps.  
  
"You are joining?" Charles asked in an exhausted surprised voice.  
  
"Miss Marvel said she would kill all the X-Men or destroy Rogue. I rather die as a X-Men then let Rogue die." Remy said in a toneless speech, " She help me out when I used her, she help me out even though I didn't deserve it. You might think she never listen to you Professor, but she does. For the last year or so, you and Logan raised her as better then fathers, adopted or real."  
  
"While I am pleased to hear you want to join the team, there is no need to die. I have managed to imprison Miss Marvel within Rogue's mind. She'll always be there, but I believe she will never haunt Rogue." Charles said, looking quite drained.  
  
"So she will be normal ole' Rogue again?" Remy asked with a bit more of a hopeful tone.  
  
"No. The prolong absorption tricked the evolution in Rogue mutant gene and bond the DNA of Miss Marvel to itself. Rogue will never lose the ability of flight, posses super strength, and almost complete invulnerability to most form of attack." Charles sounded a bit down about this. "I foresaw this in my mind after returning from Egypt. I knew she would evolve, just not like this. I fear my prediction about Jean evolving to an enemy will come true now as well."  
  
"Did you see me in the future of the X-Men?" Remy asked. "Did you see me standing there protecting Rogue from ever getting hurt like this again?"  
  
"No." Charles said plainly. Remy turned and gave the professor a grin.  
  
"Then your not as good a fortune teller as you thought baldy, because I am here to stay." 


End file.
